Audio dropouts by the ton

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:02 pm

I'm running Live 6 with a brand new Sony Viao running XP with
a brand new Alesis io|26 soundcard triggered by an external hardware sequencer.

Every 15-30 seconds I experiance audio dropouts. I'm not sure if
this should be pointing to my drivers? I've added and removed my drivers 3 times, i've adjusted the latency until i've turned blue in the face. Still the same thing. Whats interesting is the very first time I loaded the drivers, under My Computer, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices - I could see my Alesis card. Now under the dropdown it only says Realtec which is the Sony laptops default internal soundcard. Nothing about Alesis at all the last few times. Would this be my conflict? Even when I could select my Alesis io|26 soundcard under that dropdown, I was getting monster dropouts. And the card continued to work fine in Ableton. I did loose connection would the card though for a couple times and I had to reselect it in Ableton, but it didn't seem like a big deal.

I've also went to the Manufacturer's site and downloaded the latest Firmware and Drivers. Lastnight in fact.

This would be the sickest setup for me if I could just gain some stability...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Seriously.

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:22 pm

mayeb a stupid question, but what is your buffer size?
do you get rid of the dropouts if you increase it?

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:05 pm

.....yeah I played with the buffer. I'll try it again.
On a good note, it seems to be stabalizing. As if it's learning
to be hammered. I'm throwing a ton of notes at it.
I'm curious to see what's going to happen when I hook
up my midi knob contoller to it though? I wonder if it's
going to crash? It's also crashing on me from time to time.
Then it askes me if I would like to start up where it crashed last...

How nice of it to be thinking of me like that

By the way, if anyone is thinking of the Alesis io|26 cards out there.
The converters are extremely warm. It sounds really good. Like
$2000 Apogee good. The M-Audio cards sound like ass. Cold
as hell, and they should be shot. Sorry, I probably offended like
75% of you guys, but it's true. There are better cards out there.
Apogee, Alesis, MOTU, etc.

Now if it's crashing on me, that does me no good tho.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:12 pm

M-Audio converters sound like ass - never heard that one before !

They're OK - nothing special. You have to consider the price, most M-Audio products is in the budget end, hence budget converters.

RME have good converters and preamps for the money. The Mackie Onyx range and MOTU also have reasonable converters and pres for the money too, also Focusrite.

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:51 pm

Definately Focusrite. I forgot about them. How do you feel about the Presonus interfaces?

DJ_DK · Post by **DJ_DK** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:06 am

95% of my problems with windows laptops and pro audio stuff is with the battery management.

Try this, go to device manager and under batteries disable Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery.

Hopefully that will help you. It usually does the trick for lots of my friends.

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:57 am

will do.

Thank you.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:14 pm

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61460

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:44 pm

DJ_DK wrote:95% of my problems with windows laptops and pro audio stuff is with the battery management.

Try this, go to device manager and under batteries disable Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery.

Hopefully that will help you. It usually does the trick for lots of my friends.

Holy shit, this could go down as the greatest first post EVER. I think this might just have solved my RME Cardbus issues!

roby · Post by **roby** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:17 pm

totally off topic, so I apologies, but i just needed to say that i always thought "Pantytec" was the greatest artist/band/project name ever and that i wish i though of it first...

there, i feel better now...

that battery trick does work, BTW

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:11 am

I'm sure Sammy Dee and Zip totally appreciate the comment. I'm not them, just a fan.

BeatFeet · Post by **BeatFeet** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 12:12 am

I'm using a new Alesis io|26 interface too. It has some problems (including dropouts) that they're working on. My own computer is a Macintosh, and I've posted a summary of my problems here:
http://www.bmumford.com/tmp/alesis/
My problems were worse with the latest drivers.

There is currently a "Pro Review" of the io|26 underway at the Harmony Central forums. Many Windows users are reporting problems too. It's likely that your difficulties are not with settings in Live but with the Alesis interface. See:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/for ... ?t=1562285

Can't understand why you would want to use a "sick" setup.
Sounds like that's what you have already.....

Pantytec · Post by **Pantytec** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:28 pm

dude, take it back if you can. I bought the Presonus Firepod. That thing stomps all over the Alesis. Seriously. Don't be bothered by this crap anymore. You can then now concentrate on music again.

One thing I found weird tho about the Presonus Firepod is that there is no soft mixer included, ie, now virtual faders included, or downloadable. It's just dependent on your application. I found this weird. But despite that, it's stable. No hickups, pops, clicks, or bullshit.

BeatFeet · Post by **BeatFeet** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:35 pm

I'm watching the calendar and I may take the Alesis back. Of course deciding on a preamp is a major pain. There are so many choices. I've looked at the Firepod, but it has no level meters, just a clip light. And it's a rack mount. I don't have any rack in my home studio, and this form factor would be a pain to use if you didn't have a rack to hold it.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:45 pm

Make sure you set processor scheduling to background services:

http://tarekith.com/assets/XPTweaks.htm

Audio dropouts by the ton

Audio dropouts by the ton

Alesis io|26

Re: Alesis io|26